Style Guide for Articles Published at SlackDocs

A few basic rules should be kept in mind when editing pages in this Wiki.

Editing Policy

Overview

The Slackware Documentation Project wiki will not be a 100% open wiki. While true that all can contribute, in order to avoid the editing wars and other ill effects experienced by open wikis, staff reviewing of submissions and major page edits will be standard procedure. A contributor will have ownership of his submissions to the extent that he can have a reasonable expectation that the basic structure and content of the article will not be modified without his knowledge and editorial discussion via the discussion page. The Staff feels that this policy would foster a better atmosphere for positive and constructive data archiving on this wiki.

Policy Rule

Major 1) edits should not be performed on a contributor's submission without his knowledge and editorial discussion.

A record of the discourse between the contributor and the editor should be present on the discussion page.

Exceptions to This Rule

Core documents in these namespaces that require more exacting editorial overview: slackware, slackdocs or slackbook.

Explicit permission is granted via the discussion page by the original author to allow open editing/improvements.

For Exception 6, a warning note should be placed within the article by a Staff editor stating that the information is incorrect as it currently appears and will be amended soon (once the original contributor has time to respond).

Commentary

Regarding the Core namespaces slackware, slacdocs, and slackbook; these are the heart of this project. While howtos and other sections of the wiki are also important to the project, the Core documentation is the reason for all our efforts here. With this in mind, the Staff believes that content in these sections should be more minutely edited and maintained. The more exacting oversight utilized in the care of these Core documents will be appreciated by those using this project as a resource in their learning and continuing use of Slackware Linux.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

Page Editing Etiquette

Release the Lock

When you click on the “edit” button, you go into “editing mode”. In this mode, page or section is locked to avoid someone else to edit the page at the same time (creating a conflict). If you close your browser window while you are in “edit” mode, the page lock will not be released for a maximum of 15 minutes. Leave the editor using the “cancel” button when you finally decide to not modify the page. This removes the lock, and permits other people to immediately edit the page.

Edit a Section, Not the Whole Page

On the right of each page section header, you see the word [edit]. If you click on it to edit the section, you only lock this section of the page which allows other contributors to edit different sections of the page. This is the recommended way for translating pages, fixing typos or just some sentences/words.

Add a Summary

In “edit” mode, you can see an entry field “Edit summary” next to the Save/Preview/Cancel buttons. Use a few words to explain what you have modified. This comment will appear in the “old revisions” tab of the page as well as in the recent changes overview.

Minor Modifications

When you only fix a typo, change a word, or make global minor modifications, tick the box “Minor Changes” which you find to the right of the “Edit summary” field. Dokuwiki lets us follow page revisions via RSS. By indicating that you made a “minor change” you will not trigger an update to the RSS feed.
In the “old revisions” tab, minor modifications will be mentioned.

Add a Footer

Every page may end with this wiki code, especially if you copied a text from an external source:

Note About "Notes"

The button bar at the top of the edit window contains buttons for easy creation of these notification boxes.

A General note on Style

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This is a wiki so a certain degree of informality is acceptable. This includes, for example, conversational contractions such as “you've”. Readers should feel that they are talking to a knowledgeable friend rather than reading a manual. However any appearance of sloppiness must be avoided.

Do not use slang or “textspeak”.

Write complete sentences and try to avoid grammatical errors. If English is not your native language, you can always get help from an English editor.

Capitalize proper names and the main (subject-oriented) words in headings.

Long passages of plain text are hard to read; always consider if something can be better expressed using a list format. Use numbered lists only for sequential operations, bulleted lists for options or examples (as shown here).

If quoting computer output, reproduce it exactly, including spelling (which is usually American).

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Translating a Page

The multi-language capability of this Wiki requires that you stick to a few rules:

English is the primary language of the Wiki. Every Wiki article must at least have an English version.

When you want to translate a page, you must not change the name of the page.
For example to translate http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:install into Brazilian Portuguese, just add the pt-br: prefix in the URL like this: http://docs.slackware.com/pt-br:slackware:install . Do not change the page name “install” to its Brazilian Portuguese translation of “instalar” ! You should only translate the page's content.

If you want to create a new page in your native language, first create the English version of the page using an English word for the page. A page name like “instalar” is not an English word and therefore will not be accepted. You can start with an empty English page if you want, with just a title for example and containing a large notice that you are working on a translated version first. Then, add your language prefix into the page URL, and start writing your document.

A good practice is to put your doc through an automatic translator like http://translate.google.com/, paste the translated English text into the empty English page, and post on the slackdocs mailing list for help to fix the English translation. Creating the English version is a requirement if you want the site editors to accept the article in your own language.
You should add a note or warning to the English version that it is in need of proof-reading and editing.

Pages That Require Attention from an Admin

If you think that a Wiki page (written by somebody else or by yourself) is in need of attention from the admin team, you can add a tag “needs_attention” to that page. This will cause the affected page to show up on the “pages that need attention” page. The admin team will check that page regularly for new entries.

When should you use this? For instance, you find an incomplete or badly written text or even an empty page (this can happen if someone writes a non-english text but does not take action to get a proper english translation arranged). Or perhaps you find spam, or offensive language.
Your observations will help us keep the Wiki clean and high-quality.